The present invention relates to improved burners or furnaces adapted to operate at very high temperature in the range of 2,500.degree.-3,500.degree. F. whereby organic solid and liquid waste matter, as well as various solid or liquid fuels, including coal and liquid petroleum, especially high viscosity oils and waste oil are consumed to generate usable heat. Worthwhile benefits are obtainable by providing furnaces which are capable of both efficient waste disposal and conservation of energy resources by utilizing waste matter as the primary or only fuel source.
One of the greatest concerns of modern society is the disposal of mountainous quantities of waste matter, much of which has valuable and substantial energy content, in a safe and efficiency manner with minimum deleterious effect on the environment. Many communities and private industries have resorted to the use of large incinerators to dispose of both solid and liquid organic waste matter, including for example: garbage, trash, plastics, waste tires, railroad ties, and used oil, tar or pitch. While available incinerators are generally useful in such waste disposal, supplementary fuel is needed to support effective combustion. In addition, large quantities of ash and other residues, due to incomplete combustion, must be quenched and disposed of in land fills resulting in the need to treat process water. Moreover, certain types of waste, such as scrap tires, cannot be efficiently burned in such installations and must be disposed of by other means that are not available to most communities.
Another disadvantage encountered in the use of available waste furnaces is the escape of hot ash residues through the chimney of the incinerator. Such ash residues may cause fires in the vicinity of the furnace, cause noxious odors and tend to deteriorate the walls of the chimney and/or scrubbing system; and, when combined with water, acids are formed which create other forms of air and water pollution.
The Wolfram U.S. Pat. No. 2,874,655 which discloses a "Method and Application for Removal of Tree Stumps", recognizes the advantages of directing heated compressed air directly onto a burning stump. The Nakano U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,167 discloses an "Incinerator For Waste Oil" with means for supplying air through rotating arms and secondary combustion air through and normal to the side walls thereof. While these patents relate to high temperature burners, they fail to disclose burners in which nozzles for supplying high pressure air extend tangentially from both outer and inner walls of the combustion chamber to create cyclonic high temperature, high velocity air flow for virtually complete combustion within the combustion chamber and the capability of burning virtually any solid or liquid fuel.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an improved furnace construction which by means of very high combustion temperatures, cyclonic air turbulence and fuel particle retention enables virtually complete combustion of most types of waste matter in a faster and more efficient manner than in furnaces heretofore available.
It is another object to provide a furnace of the above type wherein combustion air is so controlled as to prevent escape of hot ash and unburned fuel particles from the combustion chamber of the furnace.
It is yet another object to provide a furnace of the above type that eliminates or significantly reduces related polution problems, including particulate emissions, toxic gas emission, noxious odors, disposal of solid waste and process water effluents.
It is a further object to provide a furnace of the above type which, because of its high operating temperatures, may be employed to produce high quality steam with high heat to moisture ratio needed to power a turbo generator efficiently.
It is still a further object to provide a furnace of the above type which in comparison to existing furnaces, may be made more compact, thus being transportable if necessary, is relatively inexpensive, suitable for high energy recovery and adaptable for community and industrial use ranging from very small to large multi-unit installations.
Another object is to reduce ash to slag for disposal as an inert low volume solid that can be safely disposed of in the form of landfill.